


We Could Be Friends

by lostresidentevilpotter



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2014-11-13
Packaged: 2018-02-25 07:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2612990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostresidentevilpotter/pseuds/lostresidentevilpotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rebecca wasn't supposed to like Lila Stangard. Not as a friend and certainly not as anything more. Written before 1x08.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> One sided Lila/Rebecca. Minor Wes/Rebecca. I don't own anything, of course.

Lila Stangard should be the kind of girl Rebecca despises. The first time Rebecca lays eyes on Lila Stangard, she knows she falls into a category. People adore her because she’s nice – or at least, she pretends to be. To everyone. They throw themselves at her feet, and Rebecca hates it. She hates the idiots that follow Lila Stangard everywhere she goes and she hates Lila Stangard.

Well, before she has anything to do with Lila Stangard.

The first time Rebecca talks to Lila Stangard, she knows she’s screwed. Rebecca convinces herself that Lila Stangard is just really good at manipulating people. That’s why she feels…Rebecca can’t pin down one word exactly. Nervous? Flustered? Lila Stangard makes it incredibly hard for Rebecca to come up with her usual sarcastic remarks. She seems so genuinely nice, it’s hard not to be nice back.

Their first conversation is about something stupid, of course. Lila Stangard sits at the bar, and she smiles and laughs with her friends while Rebecca works. Listening to them blab on about such unimportant shit makes Rebecca want to beat her head against the bar. Rebecca watches Lila Stangard interact with her friends, and she’s so damn perfect, it’s impossible. Lila Stangard absolutely befuddles Rebecca.

But nobody’s truly perfect. Lila Stangard gets a little overenthusiastic and flings her arms out, knocking a full bottle of beer over. The glass shatters, and the beer runs off the bar in both directions. Rebecca sighs and grabs a towel, because of course she gets to clean up Lila Stangard’s mess.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” Lila Stangard cries. Her friends laugh and poke fun at her, but she appears to be genuinely concerned about the mess she’s made. “I’m such a klutz,” Lila Stangard continues, as if she thinks Rebecca actually cares. “You shouldn’t have to clean up my mess.”

She’s right. Rebecca shouldn’t have to clean up the mess she didn’t make, but she mutters, “It’s fine,” anyway and wipes up the beer. She runs the towel down the bar in front of Lila Stangard, and to Rebecca’s surprise, Lila Stangard’s hand shoots out and latches onto her wrist, halting her movement.

“Seriously. Let me clean it up,” Lila Stangard says with a small, apologetic smile. Rebecca forces herself to drop the cloth and yanks her hand back as if she’d been burned. Lila Stangard doesn’t seem to notice. She finishes Rebecca’s job and gives the towel back. “I’m Lila, by the way,” she says. “Lila Stangard.”

I know who you are Rebecca thinks. Everyone does. “Rebecca,” she replies. “Rebecca Sutter.”

Lila smiles. “It’s nice to meet you,” she says, and Rebecca almost believes her. Lila, predictably, turns back to her friends, and Rebecca snatches the beer dampened towel off the bar and gets the hell away from Lila.

X

For whatever reason, Lila seeks Rebecca out. It’s like she can’t sense that Rebecca wants nothing to do with her. She shows up at the bar more often. Typically she’ll bring someone with her, but her eyes usually follow Rebecca around. It sets Rebecca on edge (not that she’d ever admit it to anyone) and she does her best to avoid meeting Lila’s eyes. Lila rarely speaks to Rebecca – just to order drinks – but the fifth time she shows up after the beer spilling incident (yes, Rebecca counts for some unfathomable reason) Lila’s alone.

“Hey. Rebecca, right?” Lila says.

“Yeah. Why?”

Lila shrugs. “I mean, I kinda spilled beer on you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Not a big deal. What do you want?”

“To talk to you,” Lila says, folding her hands together on the bar.

“No, what do you want to drink?” Rebecca revises, rolling her eyes at the girl.

Lila ignores her. “I think we could be friends.”

Rebecca’s taken aback by the girl’s bluntness. Her eyes narrow. “What’d I ever do to you?” Rebecca blurts. Lila laughs and reaches out to take hold of Rebecca’s hand. Rebecca’s heart hammers in her throat and she hates it. She hates Lila.

But she doesn’t. She knows she’s lying to herself. So when Lila says she wants to deal – and she knows Rebecca’s a drug dealer, so no point in lying – Rebecca lets her.

X

Lila Stangard, against all odds, manages to drag Rebecca Sutter into her life. First by dealing drugs, yeah, but Lila’s also too nice and too happy and too warm –

Rebecca shouldn’t know that last thing. But there they are, lying in bed together with Lila curled up at Rebecca’s side. She’s going on about the married man she’s been sleeping with, as if being this close to Lila wasn’t torture enough. (Not that Lila’s aware of how Rebecca’s feeling. She’s way too oblivious and wrapped up with her problems with her celibate boyfriend and “Mr. Darcy” as she’s dubbed Mr. Married Man.)

But Rebecca listens. She plays the role of the friend that Lila so desperately needs because all of her other friends are fake. Fake, just like Rebecca assumed Lila was. Rebecca was wrong – another thing she won’t admit. In fact, the list of things Rebecca can admit is much shorter than the list of things she can’t.

Things Rebecca Sutter Can Admit:

1\. Lila Stangard is not the most moral person she’s ever met, and Rebecca doesn’t care.

2\. Lila Stangard could ask Rebecca to murder someone and she’d do it, no questions asked.

3\. Rebecca Sutter has fallen for the girl she knows she should despise.

X

Lila can only hide her fling with “Mr. Darcy” from Griffin for so long. The second he finds out, Lila flees to the only person she trusts. That person happens to be Rebecca Sutter.

It’s two a.m. and Rebecca fell asleep literally five minutes ago, but someone’s pounding relentlessly on her door. Rebecca abandons the warmth of her bed and flicks the light on, nearly blinding herself. She fumbles with the locks on the door, and the second she pulls the door open, a girl flings herself at Rebecca.

Not a girl.

Lila Stangard.

Rebecca knows immediately just by the scent of the perfume she’s wearing. So now Rebecca’s holding a sobbing mess of a girl at two a.m. and she just wanted to get some damn sleep for once. She has no idea what happened, but she strokes Lila’s hair and murmurs, “It’ll be okay,” anyway.

Lila sobs into Rebecca’s neck for a good five minutes before she pulls it together. Her tears soak into Rebecca’s shirt, and Rebecca is mildly mortified with the whole situation. So Rebecca doesn’t interrogate Lila. She doesn’t ask any question pertaining to what might have happened. Rebecca asks Lila Stangard two questions that night.

“Are you okay?”

Lila swallows and lifts her head from Rebecca’s shoulder. Her eyes still swim in tears, and her cheeks are tearstained, but she whispers, “Yes.” They both know she’s lying, but for some reason, Rebecca doesn’t push her.

“Do you want to stay here?” Rebecca asks, and she bites the inside of her cheek. She prepares for disappointment; she’s certain Lila’s about to say no and go running to Griffin or Mr. Darcy.

“Yes,” Lila says, and she swipes the tears away before Rebecca has the chance to even consider doing so.

Rebecca doesn’t miss the way Lila locks the door. Carefully, as if she makes a mistake it’ll cost her. Lila shuts the light off, kicks her shoes to the side, and slides out of her jacket. Rebecca settles back into bed, ready to drift off and dream of everything that will never happen between her and Lila Stangard.

Lila disappears into the bathroom, and she doesn’t come out for a good ten minutes. When she finally emerges, she tosses something else on top of her jacket. Rebecca lifts her head in confusion, unable to see much of anything in the dark, and Lila slips into the bed beside Rebecca. Lila had ditched her jeans (understandable – jeans aren’t the most comfortable article of clothing to sleep in) which Rebecca finds when Lila’s bare legs mold against her own.

Rebecca wants to ask what the hell Lila thinks she’s doing. Wants to but never gets to. She can’t make her mouth form words. She can just lie there with her heart pounding painfully in her chest as Lila’s arm secures itself across Rebecca’s stomach.

Rebecca doesn’t sleep anymore that night.

X

She wants to strangle Griffin O’Reilly. Rebecca wants to wrap her hands around Griffin O’Reilly’s thick neck and kill him with her bare hands.

“She’s gone!” Rebecca screams, slapping him so hard he stumbles backward into Rebecca’s dresser and sees stars. “She’s gone you absolute fucking monster!” Rebecca spits, and she gets her hands around his neck, but he’s the quarterback of the football team and is at least twice as strong as Rebecca. He pries her hands off, holding her at a distance as the side of his face stings, a hand shaped mark left behind.

“You think I caused this?” Griffin shouts. “I loved her!”

Rebecca bites her tongue, otherwise it’s all going to come spilling out to Lila’s boyfriend. The boyfriend she’s been cheating on after making a goddamn virginity pact with him. The boyfriend she’d been planning to dump if she ever got Mr. Fucking Darcy to leave his wife for her. So Rebecca holds in the well, she didn’t love you and the I loved her too, okay?

Instead, Rebecca says, “They’re gonna think one of us did it.”

“What? Who?”

“The police, you idiot! She’s a missing person! They’re gonna think we had something to do with it. You’re her boyfriend and I’m her –”

“Her what?” Griffin interrupts.

“Friend,” Rebecca hisses. “We’re both associated with her.”

“So you’re her friend. Big deal. I’m her boyfriend. They’re gonna think I caused this!”

Rebecca remembers the time she punched Billy Hooper in eighth grade and broke her hand, so she refrains from punching Griffin no matter how much she’d like to. “We can’t do anything about it now anyway,” Rebecca says. “So get the hell out of my apartment and don’t come back.”

X

“Hey, Rebecca,” Lila had said late one night, weeks before her disappearance.

“What?” Rebecca grumbled, rolling onto her back and turning her head towards Lila.

Lila paused, her eyes searching Rebecca’s face. “I think I love him.”

Not the words Rebecca wanted to hear. “Who?” she asked flatly.

Lila elbowed Rebecca in the ribs – lightly, playfully – and said, “Mr. Darcy, of course.”

“He’s married.”

Lila sighed happily, staring up at the ceiling and hooking her leg around Rebecca’s. “Hopefully not for much longer.”

X

The last night Rebecca saw Lila Stangard – the last night she spent with her – Lila clung to Rebecca the whole night. Rebecca didn’t know for sure if Lila was awake or asleep, but she could feel the rise and fall of Lila’s chest against her back. She could feel and hear Lila inhale and exhale. She could imagine what it’d feel like for this to happen every night from then on.

She just couldn’t make it happen.

X

Just before sunrise, Lila had woken up, and the crying had started again. Rebecca didn’t do crying. She didn’t cry and she didn’t like people that cried. But she liked Lila. So, fully intending on asking what’s wrong now? Rebecca opened her mouth to speak, and Lila answered the question she hadn’t yet asked.

“I’m pregnant.”

It was dead silent. Rebecca seethed, unable to form any coherent thoughts let alone words, and when she did speak, she surprised herself. “We’ll figure something out.”

“I never slept with Griffin. It can’t be his,” Lila whispered.

Rebecca could only repeat, “We’ll figure something out.”

X

It looks like the only thing Rebecca has to figure out now is how not to get thrown in jail for a crime she didn’t – would never, could never – commit.

And Mr. Darcy’s wife is going to help her.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, it’s Lila. I was just wondering when I should meet you. Your place still, right? Let me know. See you then. Bye.”

X

Lila’s voice had quavered as she left the message. It doesn’t matter to Rebecca. She still gets to hear Lila’s voice even though Lila’s gone. Not just gone, but dead. 

The call had been about Lila wanting to quit dealing. Lila showed up the day before she disappeared and quit. She slapped her phone into Rebecca’s hand and stormed off. That night Lila had returned, and it was the last night Rebecca got to see Lila Stangard alive.

X

Rebecca’s new neighbor is tall and vaguely resembles a puppy. He has that same crazed look the douchebag before him had. He’s a law student. What a surprise. Either way, she treats him like shit the first two days – nights, technically. She steals a bottle of alcohol from the bar she works at and leaves it for him as an apology. 

Eventually she learns his name is Wes. Wes, short for Wesley. What kind of name is Wesley anyway? It sounds preppy.

Kind of like Lila. That ends Rebecca’s thoughts on the matter. She stops mentally ripping on Wes’s name.

X

Rebecca doesn’t grieve. Not really. She hates crying, so she doesn’t do it. She sits cross-legged on her bed and remembers everything she can about Lila Stangard. 

X

The police show up with a warrant for her arrest. Of course the new guy – Wes – is there to witness the police officer handcuff her and drag her by the arm down the stairs. Rebecca resists – why wouldn’t she? She didn’t kill Lila Stangard – to no avail.

“Rebecca! Don’t tell them anything!” Wes shouts. 

Well, duh. Not that she has anything to tell. She didn’t do it.

X

She’s coerced into confessing to Lila Stangard’s murder, and in a way, she feels responsible. She should’ve asked what was wrong with her that night, but she didn’t. Why didn’t she ask what was wrong? What if Lila died thinking Rebecca hadn’t cared about her?

X

Wes tries. He really tries to help free Rebecca, to prove her innocence. It’s sweet, actually, how much he cares about Rebecca despite hardly knowing anything about her. Not that Rebecca’s willing to accept that help. At first. Wes is so hell bent on defending her, it’s hard not to give in.

X

He finds Lila’s phone. Granted, Rebecca did hide it in his apartment, but she didn’t expect him to actually find it. She takes it a step further and tells him what’s on the phone, gives him the passcode, gives him access to Lila Stangard’s phone.

She isn’t sure why she does it. She trusts him. It’s an odd feeling. The only other person she ever trusted was Lila, and Lila’s dead now. 

X

Rebecca doesn’t know how she makes the connection between the wallpaper in Annalise Keating’s bedroom and the wallpaper in the picture on Lila’s phone. She isn’t looking at the photo when she walks into the room; she just gets a sense of familiarity when her eyes fall on the wallpaper. 

As soon as it hits her, she does the only sensible thing.

She runs.

X

She tells Wes about the wallpaper when he calls. She has no idea what he’ll do about it – or what he can do about it. Her lawyer’s husband was sleeping with Lila. Sam Keating is Mr. Darcy. 

If Lila were here, Rebecca would only have one word for her: gross. Rebecca can’t comprehend why Lila would want to sleep with him. Way too old. Was she really that desperate?

She loved him Rebecca reminds herself bitterly. She wanted him to leave Annalise for her. Hell, maybe he was going to. 

Rebecca doesn’t sleep well that night.

X

It’s because she trusts Wes that she returns when he tells her to. She may not completely trust Annalise, but she trusts Wes. 

It’s gonna take some getting used to.

X

She isn’t entirely sure what compels her to joke about strangling Lila and stuffing her in a water tank. Not her best moment, but she takes one look at the law students’ faces and laughs. “Oh my gosh. You guys are so gullible,” she says.

“Rebecca, take this prep seriously or you’ll go to jail,” Annalise snaps.

“Isn’t it kind of your job to make sure that doesn’t happen?”

Rebecca isn’t expecting “the wrath of Annalise” as she hears the rather average looking douchebag call it later. Her stoicism doesn’t falter. No, that doesn’t happen until later, at the courthouse, in front of Wes. Lila Stangard’s mother calls her a monster, and she’d had nothing to do with Lila’s death.

“She was my friend, okay?” Rebecca tells Wes. “I don’t care what that woman said. She was my friend and – whatever.” Rebecca swipes angrily at tears she shouldn’t have allowed herself to shed – God, she really hates crying – and leaves Wes behind. 

X

“Hey, can I go, too? I’m really good at flirting with girls.”

Not a lie. But when it came to Lila Stangard, a girl Rebecca somehow actually fell for, she royally fucked up.

“I’m sure. You stay here with us,” Bonnie replies.

So Rebecca hangs back and watches the guys leave. She blackmails McKenna and Lauren for fun (those are their names, right? Rebecca doesn’t remember or bother to ask) since they think she and Wes are fucking. It’s not so funny anymore once she proves she has information to hold over their heads.

X

Rebecca thinks she was nicer when Lila was around. Lila’s kindness was contagious. But for some reason she’s in a convenience store digging for the mint chocolate chip ice cream that they don’t have for her boyfriend and realizes maybe the kindness part of Lila rubbed off on her. 

And maybe she doesn’t totally mind it.


End file.
